Somehow it feels predictable that after years of drought, we are now facing flooding, mudslides, and damage to dams and levees from the heavy rains this season. California doesn’t have many “average” winters.

Locally, we have been asked pretty frequently how our project sites are doing with all of this rain. The answer varies a bit from site to site.

“And now, the moment of truth… Will we see water at Terman today?!” How frequently this question has crossed my mind in the past three years as we prepared to visit Adobe Creek at Terman Middle School in Palo Alto, one of our most notoriously dry locations for water quality monitoring. Ever since we began our Palo Alto water quality monitoring program in December of 2013--right in the middle of the drought-ridden, sun-soaked winter--we have played this guessing game.